Page 48 of Glass Wings
“Yes,” Arryn confirmed. “We need numbers to stand before the Life Gifter. The gods will call for the lives of Reign and Allienna. We need to protect them.”
Amis smiled mischievously, tapping his fingers together before considering his next words.
“The thing about balance is that it’s delicate. There is so little needed to tip a scale.” Amis began to pace back and forth. Djoser noticed an unnerved expression on Arryn’s face as he slowly began to inch in front of Reign protectively.
“I will always help to protect my family. The Kinnari are ultimately part of that family,” Amis decided. “But I cannot provide you with what you need.”
“Why is that?” Arryn asked forcefully.
“Less than a year ago, my dear Arryn, the Vrae came into Waihema and killed all of our winged villagers, and many more unwinged.”
Djoser suddenly understood the stench that had been plaguing him, the smell that no one else seemed to notice. He could see the pool of blood where he was standing. He could hear the screams. Women, children, men and the elderly were all slaughtered right where he stood. Their souls were still here, suffocating him. Their atoms were never pulled apart fully. He felt the urge to weep with the ghosts that were stuck here, with the infants that were murdered frequently. This was a death camp.
Reign started convulsing at his side, suddenly falling to theground with only the whites of her eyes showing. Arryn jumped back as Djoser rushed to her, cradling her light, violently convulsing body.
“What is happening to her?” Amis asked, his voice showing more curiosity than concern. The villagers and children in the distance also noticed the commotion and watched, gathered from the base of the huts.
Reign had been in a seizure for at least ten seconds now. Djoser placed his free hand on her jaw, putting pressure under her ears using two fingers, hoping to prevent her from biting off her tongue. His eyes fixated on hers.
The world around him went eerily quiet, causing him to look up, feeling like he had fallen into her eyes with only eternal white surrounding him. Hushed voices caught his attention as he jerked his head behind him, where he saw Regin standing very still, conscious, speaking to someone behind her.
“Now we have a witness,” he heard the voice of a young boy. Reign whipped her head around to turn and face Djoser, stepping to the side to reveal a boy with curly brown hair and haunting green eyes. The boy nodded at him, and Djoser opened his mouth, not bothering to hide his shock.
“It can’t be,” he muttered. Djoser closed the gap between himself and the other two in the vast expanse of pure nothingness, his hands out and ready to grab the boy. He reached and closed his arms around him before falling right through, stumbling around like he missed a step walking down the stairs.
“Tristan called upon me,” Reign said, pointing to the long-dead Kinnari child who stood before them, smug as ever.
“I felt you pulling me,” she added, “so I let you in.”
“The Life Gifter is using me as a messenger here,” Tristan said, stepping forward. “The war, the battle you are preparing for, comes off as a joke.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Djoser cut him off, “its purpose is to save lives.”
“Lives that have not officially been condemned,” Tristan added, crossing his arms. “What are you guys doing? You are going to riskthe entire fate of the world, of humanity, by putting your lives on the line? Even if Reign here were condemned, anything connected to Arryn would disappear. What will that leave this realm with? The moon, the tides, a balancing act from Amis?”
“Why am I not yet condemned? I broke a rule of the governing realm, something that should have had me in forever darkness. I’ve been waiting, anticipating, every day for hundreds of years.” Reign said, dropping to her knees as her anxiety fueled the conversation further. Tristan stood over her, positively smiling with delight.
“Everything that is in motion is as it’s supposed to be,” he said, walking away, his footsteps sounding surprisingly heavy. “Yes, this is real,” he yelled back as Djoser began to open his mouth.
At that instant, Djoser felt like he was pushed off a cliff, falling for eternity and an instant until he was back in Waihema with Reign in his arms, staring at him like she smelled something putrid.
“Please put me down,” she requested. “You’re making a scene.”
Djoser chuckled and stood up, placing Reign back down on her feet. He noticed everyone surrounding them, looks of astonishment and fear on all of their faces.
“You both had seizures,” Arryn said, noticing Djoser's raised eyebrows. Amis stood distant, his arms crossed across his body.
“Why are we battling the gods?” Djoser snapped at Arryn. “If no one has been condemned?”
“Reign and Allienna will be the law, the contract between our existences. We must prepare to confront the gods in their honor. I will not allow my child to be slaughtered before it is born,” Arryn said, anger and heat building in his voice, a tinge of atoms pooling under his hands from the aggression.
“Your child?” Amis asked in shock. “Allienna is pregnant?”
Amis's beautifully tanned skin suddenly paled.
“Don’t tell me that you’re about to have a seizure, too, Amis,” Reign mocked.
“It wasn’t a seizure,” Djoser cut in. “It was a vision. Reign pulled me into a conversation she was having with Tristan.”
